10x10
On Wednesday I managed to get to the 10x10 documentary filmmaking night – where five filmmakers show 10 minutes of their work and get 10 minutes of (constructive) criticism from the audience. It’s a great evening to go to – and always makes me want to do more documentary work.

Time pressure is still pretty strong and I can’t see when in the next couple of months I’m going to be able to finish my current documentary – despite the fact that there’s only a couple of days work to do on it.

On the plus side, my other projects mean I’ll have to get a more powerful computer (actually 2 of them) so when I come back to the project I hopefully won’t have the same problems with Premiere crashing during rendering.

Anyway – among Wednesday’s films were a snippet from a film on Lost Vagueness – the bizarre festival/theatrical experience I’ve been to on a couple of occasions. Lost Vagueness is difficult to explain (and I think that’s going to be a problem for the documentary maker) but my experience of it involves a Victorian mental hospital, a fair featuring such games as “guess the name of my cat” and a man who only spoke backwards.

I look forward to seeing the finished documentary.

There was also a documentary made by someone who had William Shatner’s name tattooed on his right buttock for some reason he can’t quite explain – and his quest to explore the murky world of the star trek fan.

Good luck to him. They’re a funny lot.

…compared to us sensible Doctor Who fans that is…


A reality cheque
Just as a bit of reality for documentary makers. I got my first invoice request from my distributors for the shark evolution documentary – it’s been with them since just before Christmas and they’ve sold the programme to four different countries including Canada and Spain.

Pretty good going I think and their set-up charges (about £500) and commission (35%) aren’t bad deals, so I’m happy with their work.

The profit though, comes out at £1,700 with another roughly £600 still to come.

In other words, it’s not going to make a living for me. The documentaries are great fun to make and I’m not backing away from doing them. I enjoy it and it’s worthwhile. It’s just that even if the income continues at this rate for 5 years, the programme will just about have justified my time. I don’t imagine that it will.


Trilobites
The trilobite project – a museum display animation – looks like it will entail a trip to Mexico at the beginning of November.

The project is proceeding very well right now and I’m managing to re-create some fascinating creatures. I’m making them extremely bright and colourful and I’ve put together a storyline which turns this animation into a real documentary – or at least a fictional film based on real evidence….

The guys I’m working with are doing their best and seem very helpful but they’re both very busy and live at opposite ends of the world. One is getting married and the other trying to set up a museum and neither speak English as a first language – so I’m largely working on my own and hoping I’m getting things right.

I’m trying to send updates to them as often as possible so as to minimise any re-working of the models and animations.

Poster
The Trex poster, a project I was working on a couple of months ago but which seemed to grind to a halt, is now back on. This is a wall poster which I’d got very closer to completing when the company who’d requested it suddenly changed their minds about what they wanted.

Now, they’d previously done this with another poster (on human anatomy) and the whole image had eventually been cancelled after I’d done an awful lot of work for which I didn’t get paid. I told them I wasn’t willing to re-do the Trex poster unless they could do what most other clients do and issue a commission – a firm commitment to pay me.

They’ve instead suggested some minor changes – and I’m willing to do them – although when I’ll get time to, I’ve no idea.

Credit crunching
Last week I emailed a couple of other clients about some projects which I thought were pretty firm (a pop video and a documentary intro). They haven’t responded – which I’m taking to mean that they’re pulling out.

This would bother me if I didn’t have so much work on – especially as I’d already done a couple of days work on these projects). However, these are tough times, so if the clients don’t feel they can continue I’m not going to kick up a stink

I also dropped a line to another client who asked me to do a small piece of work illustrating some sales ideas he had. This work was finished and used, but he’s now said his business is failing and he can’t pay.
Well, it’s only a small amount (£125) but I worked hard for it and he had plenty of opportunity to contact me and discuss the problem earlier, so I’m afraid I don’t have much sympathy.

Luckily, there’s legislation in place (the late payments act) which allows small businesses to charge late payment fees (about £40) and interest if an invoice isn’t settled within a month. I’ve politely highlighted this to him, but not directly imposed it. I’m giving him every opportunity to pay, but if he persists in not paying, I will sue him through the small claims court. I’ve done it before (in fact I sued Highbury Publishing for about £3,000 and they payed up just before the company collapsed owing millions).

Anyway, as a small business, and especially as a creative one, you can’t afford to have bad debts and you especially can’t afford to be seen as a soft touch.